Western Kentucky's Kaleb Duckworth (13) and Hunter Wood (9) celebrate Friday, April 29, 2016, during a game against Florida International at Nick Denes Field. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Western Kentucky sophomore baseball player Kaleb Duckworth was named Friday to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-America third team.

It marked the ninth time that the Hilltoppers have had an Academic All-American honoree. Duckworth joined Ian Tompkins (2014), Matt Rice (2009, 2010, 2011), Matt Ridings (2010), Matt Payton (2010), Erick Rosa (1997) and Jack Glasser (1973) as former WKU selections.

Duckworth also became the seventh WKU selection since the 2009 season, while being the lone Conference USA representative this season.

Duckworth also landed on the C-USA Baseball All-Academic Team and the CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 team.

Duckworth, who owns a 3.94 grade-point average as an accounting major, has also earned a C-USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal and been named to the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll in his two seasons on The Hill.

Duckworth was one of C-USA’s most consistent hitters this season, which secured him a place on the All-C-USA first team with teammate Danny Hudzina. Primarily playing as the team’s designated hitter, he finished the year with a .329 batting average and a team-high 36 runs batted in, while also ranking highly in multiple C-USA offensive categories at the end of the regular season: second in HBP (12), tied for 11th in hits (68) and tied for 12th in RBIs.

Duckworth was able to bounce back from a shoulder injury last year to rack up 18 multiple-hit games, including nine three-hit performances, and nine multi-RBI contests. The Henderson native registered at least one hit in 42 games and reached base safely in every game but seven on the year.